Police said a man whose burned body was found by a hiker atop Stone Mountain outside Atlanta over the weekend died by suicide, citing family members who said he left a note.
The man, in his late 20s, was found in an area not normally frequented by visitors, Stone Mountain Park Department of Public Safety spokesperson John Bankhead told WANF-TV on Saturday. He said a hiker had called it in just before 8:30 a.m., which led police to the charred remains tucked into a small rock outcropping resembling a cave, he told WXIA.
Police tracked down the man’s family via his driver’s license, and on Sunday investigators said the man’s parents had come forward with a note detailing where and how their son planned to kill himself. It was “very specific about the method and location” and “consistent with the death scene,” the Stone Mountain Park Department of Public Safety said in a statement obtained by WXIA-TV.
“It’s in an area that’s not widely hiked, or people don’t go primarily,” Bankhead said. “I hike out here a lot, I didn’t even know it existed.”
Although bodies have been found in the park before, he couldn’t remember ever having found one on top of the mountain.
“This is the first time in my knowledge that something like this has happened,” he told WANF.
The person’s precise cause and manner of death were still pending as an autopsy was conducted and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation wrapped up its investigation, WXIA noted.
Police declined to release the man’s name “given the sensitivity and possible impact of reporting of suicides,” encouraging anyone who feels suicidal to dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Stone Mountain Park is about 20 miles northeast of Atlanta. Confederate leaders’ images are carved into the mountain’s northern face, which features Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.
With News Wire Services
